The Impact of Giving
The Jen Duggan fellowship will ease
way for future public affairs students

Jen Duggan was the ideal LBJ School student: passionate about public service, serious about her coursework, and an active member of the LBJ School student community.

Jen, who graduated from the School’s master’s program in 1999 with a 4.0 grade point average, wrote her master’s professional report on the effects of inequality on public health, a topic that touched on all her policy interests: poverty, health care, social justice, and equality of opportunity.

After Jen’s death in December 1999, her parents, Robert and Laurie Duggan, established a fellowship in her name at the LBJ School. According to her mother, they chose to memorialize their daughter through an endowed fellowship for several reasons.

“We wanted something that could be perpetuated indefinitely,” she said, “something that could provide a vehicle to prepare others to carry forward the message and the work that Jen so strongly believed in—that all people are created equal and therefore deserving of equal treatment, legally and morally, regardless of race, age, gender, religion, sexual preference, income level, etc. We wanted something that would bear her name and her legacy long after we were gone.”

A second reason the Duggan family decided to establish the fellowship was the desire to free students from the need to work while they attend graduate school.

“Jen was serious about education,” said Laurie Duggan. “She had always been a top student and she had always worked to help defray expenses. But the demands of graduate school made finding an outside job with a flexible schedule very difficult. So when we removed the need for Jen to work, she was free to devote more time to her studies and her community involvement. We felt that establishing a fellowship would provide a similar benefit for another LBJ School student while honoring our daughter in a very meaningful way. It was an obvious choice, and we’re sure Jen would have agreed.”

According to Jen’s mother, the final factor in their decision was the immediate growth potential of the endowment.

“My employer, ExxonMobil, has a terrific matching funds program allowing three-to-one matches against personal contributions by qualifying contributors,” she said. “We knew that with this added help, a fellowship fund could grow very quickly into something that would ultimately make a significant difference in the lives of many.”

The Jen Duggan Endowed Graduate Fellowship provides tuition assistance for master’s degree candidates who are committed to public service, with special emphasis given to those pursuing the study of economic inequality and its societal effects. The first recipient of the fellowship will be announced later this spring for the fall 2003 school year.

For more information about the Jen Duggan Fellowship and other endowments at the LBJ School, visit the LBJ School Development and External Affairs Office web site.

Record Home • Publications • LBJ School
May 5, 2003
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